


Knowing is Half the Trouble

by GoldenAmaranthe



Category: RWBY
Genre: Answer, F/F, F/M, Family, Femslash, Future, Lesbian, Search, Team, Trouble, Who
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-13
Updated: 2015-11-24
Packaged: 2018-03-30 09:42:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 14,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3932107
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GoldenAmaranthe/pseuds/GoldenAmaranthe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As a team, it all started with a discovery. As an individual, it started with a nightmare. Horrifying scenes plagued Yang's mind, robbing her of sleep night after night. While the blonde is struggling to comprehend the significance to these horrific nightmares, and the mysterious woman who initiates them, the team finds something in their dorm. Could the secret to this unknown device be the solace Yang has been looking for? Or could the tumbling gears that fall into place tear everything the team worked so hard to accomplish apart?</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Gold, Crimson, and Black

**Author's Note:**

> A flash of gold, a splash of crimson, and the world will turn to black.

The faint chime of bells filled the air as a cool breeze wafted over the grounds of Beacon Academy. Trees, with leaves as red as blood, lined the sidewalk and dabbled the emerald green grass. At the end of the walkway stood a great statue of heroes standing triumphantly over the monsters they had fought so hard to defeat, and just past that stood the prestigious school for future Huntsmen and Huntresses; its sharp edges and vast windows resembling more of a cathedral or old castle than an actual school.

Everything was tinted a shade darker as the night loomed over campus. Not a single student or professor could be seen. Well, there was one.

A girl, more a woman now, with long, wavy blonde hair and amethyst eyes walked confidently down the path leading to the heroic statue. She quickly scanned her surroundings with slight unease. Despite the wind, the only sound she could hear was the soft chimes of bells. Even the heavy footsteps of her knee high boots did not register as an audible noise.

She turned her attention back to the statue and felt her heart skip a beat in surprise. Another woman had appeared. Her long, black hair billowed behind her like ink black feathers fluttering in the wind. Her red and black attire clung to her body just enough to give her a very attractive definition, but her face was what got the girl’s attention.

Simply, it got her attention because she could not see it. In place of an actual woman’s face, a white Grimm mask sat prominently. Red markings clashed against the pearly material, and yet complimented each and every detail. But what did stand out from the mask, along with those markings, were the red eyes that peered at the girl through the slits just off the nose line.

The girl stopped and stared at this stranger curiously. She had seen her before. She had saved her on the train earlier that day. But there was one question that lingered in her mind…

“Who are you?”

The woman remained silent. Her only reply was the removal of her mask; revealing beautiful, porcelain white skin, and a heart shaped face that eerily resembled the girl’s own. The blood red eyes that had been peering at her through the mask were now amplified in beauty now that the barrier was removed.

“Yang,” the woman said in a soothing voice that sent chills down the younger woman’s spine, “we have a lot to talk about.”

Amethyst eyes turned red without as much as a spark of the girl’s semblance being activated. “You didn’t answer my question. We can start talking with that.”

The woman’s smile grew bigger. “Fiery, just as I knew you would be. The dragon’s fire burns bright with you, doesn’t it?”

Yang’s eyes narrowed. “You obviously know me, but I still have no idea who you are. Answer my question, or else our little ‘talk’ is going to end pretty quickly.”

The woman’s smile faltered slightly before returning with full force. She took a few strides towards the blonde and raised her hand. “I will leave who I am up to your interpretation.”

Yang watched the woman as she placed a hand on her cheek. “What are you-”

A whirlwind of raven feathers suddenly enshrouded her. Any light shining from the moon was extinguished, and soon even the woman’s presence was gone. The familiar feeling of fear wormed its way into Yang’s stomach like a parasite as she tried to see into the darkness.

“Where’d you go?” She shouted.

The only reply was her echo yelling back at her.

“Hey!”

Still nothing.

Yang grit her teeth irritably and stomped her foot on what she assumed was ground. The darkness surrounding her made her feel as if she were floating in shadows. “For someone who said they wanted to talk, you sure as hell don’t say much!”

She turned around to see if she couldn’t make out anything in the vast darkness that enshrouded her. This woman was really starting to piss her off. Who says “We have a lot to talk about” and doesn’t say anything?

A loud shriek shattered the silence of the darkness around her.

“Who’s there?” She shouted. Adrenalin was pumping through her veins as a sense of unease swept through her. “Hello?”

Another yell, only this time it was followed by someone speaking.

“We’re not going to make it!” A woman shouted.

A loud explosion filled the air and the shadows at Yang’s feet shook violently. “Yes, we are! Just tell me where you are and we can get out of here together!”

What was she saying? She couldn’t see anything in this black Hell. How was she supposed to find someone in here? Much less find a way out in the chance that she did find whoever was yelling.

“We’re not,” a second woman said in more of a hushed tone before exploding like a crack of thunder, “but you are!”

Yang froze. That voice sounded so familiar. Where had she heard it before? Another crash, another shriek, a curse shouted to the heavens above, and the roar of beasts.

“NO!” The first woman yelled. “We need to get her out of there!” What sounded like rocks being moved grated against the silence of the abyss.

“Don’t!” The second woman shouted back angrily. “This is the only exit they have! If you open it up to get me out, they’ll destroy everything! You guys need to get out of here!”

“I’m not leaving you behind!”

A chorus of growls filled the air; drowning out any other dialogue being exchanged between the two women Yang could not see. Ice formed in her gut as recognition seeped into her mind: Grimm…and not just one or two, but the sound of hundreds circling around her. The only place she didn’t hear the beast’s bloodthirsty snarls was behind her.

She took a step back, but she didn’t go far. The heel of her boot tapped against what felt like hard stone. Her hand immediately shot back and was greeted by the rough, cool texture of fallen rock.

She was trapped.

The hungry roars were getting closer, but she couldn’t see the beasts coming towards her. Not even their burning red eyes penetrated the darkness. Panic bubbled in her chest as she raised her fists for battle against the unseen monsters.

Strange, her wrists felt unusually light.

She looked down at her fists and felt her blood run cold. Ember Celica, her trusty gauntlets, were gone. All she had covering her hands were the black, fingerless gloves that protected her skin from the shotgun fire that exploded through the air whenever she made contact with her enemy.

“Fuck…”

Yang’s eyes widened. She hadn’t said that, but it sounded like her. What’s more, the voice had come from right in front of her.

She squinted into the darkness. “Hello?”

The only sound she heard were the snapping and snarling of the Grimm speeding towards her. They were close now. She could smell their hot, rancid breath as they panted. It was almost enough to completely overwhelm her.

And then she saw them. In the darkness a short distance away, thousands of red dots burned through the black abyss. The growls increased in ferocity as they singled out their prey.

Yang felt her legs turn to jelly as all hope drained from her body. This was it. This was how she was going to die. She was all alone in this God forsaken place, unarmed, and surrounded by hundreds, if not thousands, of Grimm. It would take a miracle to save her now.

“This is going to hurt like a bitch,” the woman’s voice in front of her said calmly.

A bittersweet smile spread across Yang’s lips. Had she said that? The voice sounded a lot like her. Sure, maybe a little more mature, but it still sounded like her.

“That’s for sure,” she whispered into the darkness.

The shadows under Yang’s feet shook violently as a dark silhouette manifested in front of her. Burning red eyes peered down at her as hot, rancid breath washed over her body. She could taste the familiar acidic taste of vomit creeping to the back of her tongue, but she fought it back. Puking didn’t exactly feel like a good idea right now.

The monster leaned in closer, only to stop an arm’s length away. A bright light suddenly exploded across Yang’s vision as a loud roar filled her ears.

“What the hell?” Yang shouted as she squinted against the harshness of the light. She couldn’t make out anything from inside, but she did hear that voice again; the voice that sounded like her.

“Aw, aren’t you cute? You think you’re scary.”

Yang tried to focus on the light and felt her breath catch in her throat. Long, blonde hair resembling that of molten sun cascaded over muscular shoulders enshrouded in half of a tattered, brown cape. A sweat drenched, cropped black tank top clung to her hourglass body tightly; revealing well-toned muscles that nearly made Yang jealous. What little of her abdomen wasn’t covered by her shirt was wrapped in a dark brown fabric that matched the wrapping on her shoulders and biceps. Black, fingerless gloves adorned her hands. Finally, a pair of black ripped up pants hung loosely off her cocked hips. The durable fabric looked like it had seen its fair share of battles, blood, and dust; complementing the battered black, leather boots she wore.

“ _Is that…me?_ ” Yang thought to herself. An explosion of light filled the air, blinding the blonde momentarily. There was a flash of gold, a splash of crimson, and the world faded to black. Suddenly the darkness beneath Yang’s feet gave out, and she plummeted into the deep abyss below.

A soft hum filled the air and three things embedded themselves into Yang’s mind as she fell:

**A flash of gold.**

The soft hum grew in strength until a familiar voice started to sing. “ _You are my sunshine, my only sunshine. You make me happy when skies are gray._ ” She could see solid ground beginning to form below her as she plummeted towards the Earth.

**A splash of crimson.**

“ _You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you._ ”

She closed her eyes and relaxed as the ground raced up to greet her.

**And the world faded to black.**

“ _So please don’t take my sunshine away._ ”

 

 

Yang bolted upright in bed. Tremors rocked her body as a cold sweat rolled across her skin. Her breaths came in uneven pants and her eyes were frantically searching the room.

She was safe in her own bed in Team RWBY’s shared dorm room at Beacon Academy. The moonlight pouring through the window reduced the darkness to a mere shadow compared to the pitch black abyss that still plagued her mind. Soft whistles, and one rugged snore, filled her ears, insinuating that her teammates were still asleep.

A deep sigh of relief blew past Yang’s lips. A dream. It had all been a dream.

She stared down at her shaking hands and balled them into fists. “What the heck was that all about?” she whispered. “Was that woman…me?” A flash of gold streaked across her mind as the woman from her dream attacked an army of Grimm with her bare hands.

“It definitely seemed like something I would do if I was ever trapped like that,” she chuckled silently. “Even without my gauntlets, I’m sure I could take down at least a few Grimm on my own before they….”

A splash of crimson exploded across her mind’s eye as the woman killed at least a hundred Grimm before finally collapsing in exhaustion. The burning red eyes of the beasts glinted with glee as they descended upon their prey. And yet, even as she disappeared beneath the black mass of snarling monsters, the golden haired woman still fought.

Yang swallowed hard. Her throat suddenly felt like sandpaper. “I need a drink of water.”

She swung her legs over the side of her bed and dropped to the floor silently. After looking high and low to make sure that her teammates hadn’t heard her, pride swelling in her chest knowing that she had succeeded in not arousing her cat Faunus partner, she tip-toed to the bathroom and poured herself a small cup of water from the faucet. The contents of the cup jiggled from her still shaking hand.

She stared at herself in the mirror. There were a lot of similarities between her and the blonde woman from her dream: the hair, the smoking hot body, the attitude, even some of the ways they fought. What if that woman was her?

Scenes from her dream replayed in her head like a bad TV sitcom re-run as she downed her third glass of water. What if the black haired woman in her dream had showed her the future?

Yang shook her head violently. No way. That was crazy.

But…was it?

The blonde stared at her reflection in the mirror. She took a deep breath and slowly combed her hair into a ponytail with her fingers. A sharp gasp escaped her lips and she let the gold curtain fall across her shoulders.

“Practically the spitting image,” she said shakily. She shook her head again exited the small, shared bathroom. Whether it was from the sheer vividness of her dream, or because it was so early in the morning that her mind was going bonkers, she was unsure. But something about what she had felt, what she had seen, gave her an uneasy feeling deep in her gut. Something big was happening, but what? The White Fang was already disbanded thanks to them. What else could there be?

As soon as she climbed onto her bed, exhaustion immediately swept through Yang’s body. A powerful yawn coveted her lips, and she snuggled deeper into her pillow. Whatever it was; it could wait until tomorrow. Her eyes gently fluttered closed, and her world slowly faded to black.


	2. Discovery

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Mr. Sandman, bring me a dream.

It was almost maddening; the uncontrollable itch that crawled across her skin. She could feel the prickle begin at her scalp and creep down her neck to the rest of her body. Her fingertips throbbed intently, but she resisted the urge to scratch at the pestering feeling.

The itch reached the crown of her head, causing her long, raven black hair to prickle just enough to raise each strand on end. However, that was the least of her worries. Her main concern was the fact that the irritation was (quite literally) just a hair away from the felid ears hiding beneath the velvet, black bow atop her head.

A low growl of irritation rumbled silently in her chest as she began dragging the nail of her index finger repeatedly across the cover of her notebook in an attempt to keep her feline appendages from twitching. It was not often that she would find her more animal characteristics to be a problem. She usually kept them well under wraps; but, as of late, it has been practically impossible.

Some people would make the joke that she had missed her flea bath for the month. Humans often correlated the worst of animal traits to the Faunus race after all. Others may think she forgot to shower. A few girls might have even made the assumption that a case of lice had erupted in their school.

Golden irises swept through the rest of the class, causing the young Huntress in training to come to a conclusion upon seeing her fellow classmates. Publicly itching with pencils, pens, nails, and even textbooks, bouncing legs and fidgeting hands, heavy sighs of resentment followed by longing glances towards the door, and pitiful displays of distress as some sprawled across their desks; practically whimpering like puppies that were about to piddle on the floor. End of the year fever had swept through the student body like wildfire.

A soft snore sounded from her right, causing the shadow of a smile to covet the Faunus’ lips. She turned her attention to the mass of blonde curls lying on the desk beside her. Well, the fever had hit most of the students at least.

Blake looked back at the front of the room to make sure the professor wasn’t looking before bumping her knee against her partner’s. “Yang,” she whispered, “wake up. Class is almost over.”

The blonde murmured something in her sleep, but made no advances to wake up.

Blake stared down at the girl worriedly. She had been like this for the past week. Whenever she had the chance, Yang would simply fall asleep. At first it was just between classes, but as the days drove on the blonde could be found sleeping in class, at the dinner table, and even going so far as to fall asleep during sparring practice.

Yang whimpered pitifully and adjusted her position just enough for Blake to see a small tear roll over the bridge of her nose.

“That’s it,” the brunette growled threateningly. Whatever dream Yang was having was about to come to a very abrupt end. She reached underneath the desk and felt around until she felt the creamy skin of the blonde’s thigh.

“ _I’m sorry, Yang,_ ” she apologized as a slight blush tinted her ears, _“but this is for your own good._ ” Using the very tips of her claw-like nails, Blake pinched up just enough skin from the muscular flesh to give a good twist.

A low groan emanated from Yang’s throat.

“ _Wow, she is really gone. I’ll have to take drastic measures._ ” Blake added the nail from her middle finger and latched onto the small flap of skin she had managed to get. With a flick of the wrist, she twisted the captive skin a full one-hundred and eighty degrees.

The low groan reverberating in Yang’s throat increased in crescendo until it was practically a scream. Her body flew into an upright sitting position; wide eyed and mouth open to release a blood curdling shriek. Blake immediately clapped her hand over her partner’s mouth to stifle the oncoming explosion.

“ _mmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMM!_ ”

“Glad to see you’re awake,” Blake teased dryly as she waved awkwardly at the few students who had turned in their seats to see what the commotion was about. “Now, I’m going to let go of you, and when I do you’re going to be very quiet. Understood?”

Yang nodded her head vigorously. Tears of extreme agony were beginning to form in the corners of her eyes. “mm-MM!”

Blake released her hold on Yang’s thigh and mouth. The blonde immediately gasped for air and collapsed onto the desk.

“Blake!” She whispered irritably. “What the hell?”

“You fell asleep again,” Blake whispered back dully. “Not only that, but you were whimpering like a dog and had tears streaming down your face. What the heck were you dreaming about?”

All the fight seemed to drain out of the brawler at that. Yang turned her attention towards the front of the class and picked at her tear moistened notebook. “It’s nothing.”

A small vein raised itself against the skin of Blake’s forehead. “Oh, no,” she hissed. “Don’t think that you can goad me into spewing everything that was bothering me when we were up against the White Fang and not say what’s bothering you, Yang. We’re partners, aren’t we?”

Yang nuzzled her nose into the crook of her elbow. “Yeah…”

“And we should be able to tell each other what’s wrong, right?”

“…..Yeah….”

“So spill it,” Blake half ordered. When Yang still didn’t talk, she sighed heavily and focused her attention on the clock. Class was going to be let out in three….two….one….

A loud ringing signaled the end of class. Students quickly packed up their things and bolted to the door in an attempt to be one of the first ones out. Yang would have beaten them all if someone hadn’t grabbed the sleeve of her uniform jacket just as she stood up.

“We need to talk,” Blake said sternly, and hauled a surprised blonde out of the classroom via the doorway at the bottom of the lecture hall.

* * *

 

It didn’t take long for Blake to think of the perfect place for her and Yang to talk. She knew quite a few places on campus that allowed for some privacy. This one in particular happened to be her favorite.

They were right in the middle of Forever Fall. A small, babbling brook was winding through the trees and cascading over the rocks located on the bank. A few robins were singing in the background as the two Huntresses in training walked along the water’s edge.

“Blake, where are we going?” Yang whined. “We’re going to be late for dinner at this rate!”

Blake released the blonde’s hand and pointed on the ground. “Sit.”

Yang raised an eyebrow confusingly. “Uh…”

A low rumble vibrated in Blake’s throat and Yang immediately plopped herself onto the ground; crossing her legs as she did so. “I’m down! I’m down!”

“Good,” Blake sat down in front of the taller of the two and copied Yang’s pose, “now, what is going on with you?”

Yang’s face fell slightly. She gently scratched the back of her head in embarrassment. “It’s…kind of hard to explain.”

“Well, we’re not leaving here until you find a way to explain,” Blake threatened. She took a deep breath and stared at the ground between them with worried eyes. “Yang, you’ve been acting strange the past week. You’re not sleeping-”

“I am totally sleeping!” Yang tried to protest.

“Sleeping in class doesn’t count!” Blake snipped. “I can hear you tossing and turning at night, Yang. You’re in the bed above me, remember? I can tell you’re not getting any rest at night, and it’s affecting you during the day.

“I don’t just mean you falling asleep in class either,” she explained in a softer voice. “Two days ago you nodded off in the middle of bringing a spoonful of Pumpkin Pete’s to your mouth at breakfast. And just yesterday you passed out during our sparring practice; I almost sliced your head off!”

All the color drained from Yang’s face as she plastered her hand to her neck. “I thank you for not doing that.”

“I can’t promise that I’ll be able to stop next time,” Blake admitted sadly. “I’m not the only one who’s noticed that you haven’t been sleeping. Ruby and Weiss have sensed it too.”

“They have?”

Blake nodded. “They mainly state how they don’t hear your chainsaw snores in the middle of the night anymore, but they’re just as worried as I am. It’s not healthy to go a full week without sleeping, Yang.”

Yang stared at the ground guiltily. “That’s definitely saying something.”

“Considering the fact that it’s coming from me, yeah,” Blake said in an attempt at humor.

A small snort escaped Yang’s nose as she tried not to laugh. “Well, I wasn’t going to say it, but I’m glad you did!” She stared at her partner and smiled warmly.

“Thanks, Blake. I needed a good, stern talking to. But the reason why I haven’t been getting much sleep is still embarrassing.”

This time it was Blake’s turn to raise an eyebrow. “Yang Xiao Long is actually embarrassed? I must be going crazy.”

Yang shoved her partner’s shoulder playfully. “Oh, shove off! I can get embarrassed every once in a while!”

“Says the girl who walked around campus with a portion of her skirt tucked into the waistband of her panties for a good half a day before realizing,” Blake teased. “I still can’t believe how nonchalant you were about it when you found out. I probably would have died in a corner.”

“The secret is to embrace it,” Yang laughed “But, in all seriousness,” she continued after her laughing fit ceased. “I’ve been having these strange dreams lately.”

Blake furrowed her eyebrows. “Dreams?”

Yang nodded. “Yeah, they’re a bit hard to explain. The content isn’t, but the feeling is. I’ve been having the same dream every night, and each time they get just a little more clearer; a little more…real.”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean…” Yang thought for a second. “Okay, have you ever had a dream where you’re falling and you actually feel like you’re falling?”

“Until I hit the ground, and then I usually wake up,” Blake confirmed.

“Well, that’s what these dreams feel like,” Yang explained. Memories from the first night flashed through her mind. “Only these are different.”

Blake raised an eyebrow. “How so?”

Yang took a deep breath. “Well…in these dreams I’m walking around campus at night. I end up meeting with this woman with long, dark hair and red eyes. So far our conversations are different every time, they actually build off of the dream I had before. The only things that stay the same are that there are two other people there, but I don’t see them. At least not until the very end when one suddenly appears…”

It was quiet for a solid minute before Blake broke the silence. “Sounds like one heck of a dream.”

“The thing is…I don’t think it’s a dream,” Yang admitted sheepishly. “I think…I think I’m looking into my future.”

Blake noted that a cricket was chirping somewhere nearby as she tried to comprehend what Yang had said. “You think your dreams are glimpses into the future?”

“It’s silly. I know,” Yang sighed. “But you don’t see them, Blake. The one person who I see in that dark abyss…it’s me! She sounds like me, she looks like me, she has the same ‘kick ass first, ask questions later’ attitude, and she has a similar fighting style! And every time I see her….she dies….”

“So, you think that these dreams are telling you how you’re going to die,” Blake more stated than asked. “Why do you think that?”

Yang shrugged. “Why are some people so afraid of spiders that seeing so much as a picture of one causes them to faint? I can’t really explain what it is about these dreams, but I feel they’re important somehow. Maybe they’re not actually showing me how I’m going to die, but that’s the only explanation I have right now.”

She watched as Blake’s bow twitched back and forth. “You think I’m crazy, don’t you?”

“No,” Blake admitted honestly. “If these dreams are causing you to act so…not you, then I think there’s something important to them. What else has happened in these dreams?”

“Nothing really,” Yang sighed. “I get thrown into the dark and suddenly I feel the shadows I’m standing on start to shake. I hear hundreds of thousands of Grimm running towards me. Two women are yelling back and forth, but I miss half of what they say. Then I get backed into a wall that I can’t see, and the one woman who I think is me appears just in time to keep the Grimm away from me…. That’s when I watch her basically get ripped apart by the horde of Grimm….”

A violent shiver ripped through Blake’s core. “Alright, you never mentioned that part. No wonder why you’re terrified. I’m surprised you’re able to fall asleep in class after witnessing that every night for the past week.”

“Yeah,” Yang laughed weakly as she rubbed the back of her head. Her eyes suddenly widened in an “ah-hah!” moment. “Oh! And at the end of the dream, when I’m falling back to my bed, I hear someone singing ‘ _You are My Sunshine’_.”

“Is there any significance to that song?” Blake asked confusingly. “Otherwise, that seems awfully random; even for you.”

Yang plastered her hands to her heart in mock hurt. “Oh! My heart! Blake, you wound me!”

Blake laughed lightly at her partner’s dramatic acting. “That still doesn’t answer my question.”

Yang crossed her arms and thought for a minute. “I remember Summer used to try and sing that song to Ruby and I as kids, unfortunately she couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket, but my dad sang it to me a lot.”

Blake felt something click in the back of her mind. Summer Rose was Yang and Ruby’s mother; even though she was only technically Ruby’s blood mom. Yang had told her about Summer earlier in the semester when she had been going on a route to self-destruction; about how she took over when her own mother had abandoned her.

“Do you think it was Summer’s voice singing to you?”

“Hardly,” Yang chuckled sadly. “Like I said, she couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket. Whenever she ‘sang’ it to us it was more of pitched talking. If anything, it sounded like I was singing….if I used my big girl voice to sing I guess.”

Blake furrowed her eyebrows. “Explain.”

“Alright, so you know how you can make your voice sound super mature when you want and super childish when you want?” Yang asked; changing her voice to correlate with the different pitches she was describing. “That’s what I mean.”

Blake mouthed “Oh!” in understanding. “So, if you sang in your quote: ‘big girl voice,’ it would sound like you?”

“Yup!” Yang beamed. “It’s kind of weird. If this dream is telling me how I die, then I am one sick son-of-a-bitch if I’m going to sing a song Summer attempted to sing to Ruby and I as kids.”

“Probably,” Blake agreed dully.

Yang fell over clutching her heart. “Oh, this is the big one! My partner has officially broken my heart beyond repair! Goodbye, cruel world! Summer, I’m coming to see ya!”

The two Huntresses laughed at Yang’s theatrics before sitting in silence by the side of the brook. It was peaceful. Blake glanced over at her partner lying in the grass and felt that she was a lot calmer than when they had first gotten out to Forever Fall.

“ _That bad girl power I got! I'll abuse it tonight! Cause tonight got poison on my mind. That power I got! You’ll be mine when I strive, feel alive. Got poison on my mind!”_

The sound of Yang’s blaring scroll breaking the peaceful silence caused Blake to jump and yowl in surprise. She could only imagine how much she looked like a cat from some Sunday morning comic strip. The thought caused a shudder of embarrassment to rip through her body.

Yang, restraining herself from laughing, pulled her scroll out of her pocket and glanced up at Blake. “It’s Ruby.”

“I’m aware,” Blake replied begrudgingly as she jumped down from her branch and landing softly on the ground. She knelt down behind Yang so she could be in the picture just in time for Yang to answer.

“What’s up, oh Fearless Leader?” Yang exclaimed dramatically into her scroll from the base of the tree.

“Guys!” Ruby’s excited face blew up the screen. Her dark, red tipped, short hair was wind whipped and half of her long cloak was draped over half of her face. “You need to come to the room! Quick!”

Yang and Blake exchanged curious glances.

“Why? What’s up, little sister?”

“Weiss and I found something!” Ruby replied. Her voice was dripping with excitement as she bounced up and down. “You guys need to get here, like, now! Right now!”

“Ruby, they’re probably in class!” Weiss’ voice sounded in the background.

“If they were in class, they wouldn’t have answered their scrolls. Besides, they’re obviously in Forever Fall,” Ruby stated matter-of-factly before turning her attention back to the black and yellow duo. “Guys, just get here as soon as you can! I can’t wait to see what this thing is!”

The screen went black as the call disconnected.

Yang and Blake stared at each other in confusion.

“What do you think that was all about?” Blake asked.

“No idea,” Yang shrugged. “But let’s go find out!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yang's ringtone is "Poison" by Nicole Schirzinger.


	3. Vortex Hunter Spur

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here comes trouble. Secrets in Hiding: The Truths of Faunus Revealed.

Rose petals swirled around the small, half empty dorm room like a typhoon; lacing everything that was still left unpacked in a thin sheet of red. Crystal blue eyes tried to keep up with their creator, but it was impossible. Ruby, using her semblance, was nothing more than a red blur streaking across the walls.

“Would you stop zipping around the room for five seconds? You’re giving me a headache!” Weiss snipped as she began rubbing her temples in an attempt to dull the pain forming in her frontal lobe.

The tornado of petals immediately fell to the floor as Ruby froze. Her red cloak sped past her only to be yanked back by the sudden stop. The younger girl glanced at her partner, silver eyes sparkling with both excitement and sincerity. “Sorry, Weiss, but I’m just so excited!”

“I can tell,” Weiss replied calmly as she plucked multiple rose petals from her long, white ponytail. “But can’t you reign in your excitement for just a little bit? We don’t even know what this thing is.”

“But that’s what makes it so exciting!” Ruby exclaimed as she leapt onto her makeshift bunk bed fort. The ropes that had held so diligently all year groaned in protest.

Weiss stared at the bed hanging above her own skeptically. There was no way in hell that she was going to be able to sleep peacefully after hearing those ropes creaking so ominously. Perhaps she could talk Yang into swapping beds with her for the rest of the week. That blonde Neanderthal hadn’t been getting much sleep as of late anyway. Surely she would be able to sense the bed plummeting to earth and dodge it in time.

A loud _BANG_ sounded behind the heiress and she flinched as her headache immediately morphed into a migraine. “Speak of the devil.”

“And the devil shall appear!” Yang announced flamboyantly. She clapped her hands and rubbed her palms together. “So, where is this thing you guys found? I’m curious to see what has Ruby all excited.”

Ruby sprung from her bed and sprinted to her and Weiss’ shared closet. “Alright, check this out!” She pulled a medium sized keepsake box from the top shelf and held it above her head like a trophy. “Ta-da!”

Blake and Yang stared blankly at the box. It was an old, beat up thing that resembled an old chest. The light brown varnish was faded in most areas and splinters of wood protruded from others. There was so much dust caked onto the bared wood that it looked like mold was growing on it…actually that might have just been mold. The small, rusted rectangle on the lid was so tarnished it was impossible to tell if it had once been yellow or silver plated, and that went for all the metal that was embellished into the wood.

“Uh…Rubes,” Yang started gently, “maybe you shouldn’t touch that thing until after we make sure your Tetanus shot is up to date.”

“Yang,” Ruby whined. “I thought you would at least be interested in it! Don’t you see what kind of box this is?”

Yang squinted and tilted her head slightly. “A _really_ old, infection ridden box?”

Ruby whined. “No!” She cradled the box in one arm and wiped off the dirt encrusted square on the lid. “Look!”

With a newfound curiosity, the rest of the team looked intently at the small plaque. It was severely rusted and tarnished with age, but there was a small amount of legible script carved into the metal: TRBL

“TRBL?” Weiss read out loud.

“Sounds like trouble,” Yang snickered.

“Maybe this belonged to one of the old teams that used to live in this dorm,” Blake offered. “You might be right, Yang. TRBL does sound like a team name like what we have now.”

Yang blinked. “I was just joking, but alright!” She took the box from Ruby and flinched in surprise. “Whoa…just looking at this old, decrepit thing, you’d think it would fall apart touching it. It actually feels pretty solid.” She shook the box gently and listened at the sound of something moving ever so slightly inside. “Hey! There’s actually something in here!”

“That’s kind of the point of a keepsake box,” Weiss mocked.

Yang stuck her tongue out at the heiress. “Thank you, Weiss Queen, for that remark.”

“Where did you two find this?” Blake interjected before the white and yellow half of their team got into too much of a verbal argument. “I have a hard time believing that it was just sitting in Ruby’s portion of the closet this whole time without anyone seeing it.”

Weiss gave Ruby a reprimanding look as she tapped her fingers on her arm. “Well, Ruby, care to explain how it is that we found the box?”

Yang and Blake turned their attention to Ruby; who in turn started rubbing the back of her head awkwardly.

“Well…I found it in a secret compartment hiding under the bookcase by the window. I…may or may not have….accidentally…knocked the shelf over….”

“She knocked the shelf over because she was on another sugar high,” Weiss stated bluntly. “I got out of class early and decided to come back here to study. When I got back, I saw Ruby bouncing in her seat like a bouncy-ball on cocaine surrounded by at least twelve Winter Fairy Sugar Cream wrappers.”

Yang and Blake blanched. Everyone in Remnant knew that Winter Fairy Sugar Cream cookies were the most sugar laden cookies in the whole world. The sugar content in one cookie alone was more than enough to take care of your yearly required sugar dosage. They were dangerous pastries made of two soft, crumbly sugar cookie patties stuck together with an ultra-sweet, blue and white swirled frosting that, if placed under a black light, would glow like some radioactive goo. Knowing that Ruby, the Cookie Queen, the Duchess of Sugary Delights, the Berserker of Baked Goods, had eaten not one but twelve of those monstrosities was enough to plague the black and yellow duo’s nightmares for the next month.

Yang quickly scanned the room for any signs of damage. Finding none, she stared at Weiss with wide eyes. “How…on earth…did you manage to control Ruby when she was on that much of a sugar high?”

Blake nodded her head in agreement. In all retrospect, Beacon Academy should be the next tourist attraction of Vale as nothing but ruins haunted by the students who met an untimely end at the hands of a sugar crazed tornado. How were they all still alive?

Weiss scoffed haughtily. “Well, it definitely wasn’t easy. As soon as Ruby heard the door close behind me, she started bouncing off the walls. But before she caused too much damage, I used my semblance to basically shoot her back and forth on a bunch of glyphs like a pinball machine.”

She took her scroll out of her book bag and pulled up a video. “Take a look. It’s actually quite humorous.”

Blake and Yang took the heiress’ scroll and watched with a sick sense of amusement and horror as a red blur that was Ruby Rose bounced off of glyphs resembling the Schnee sigil while Weiss sat calmly in a chair and sipped at a cup of coffee. At some point, the white haired girl must have gone back and put in the pinball sound effects because every time the red blob hit a glyph a sharp _DING_ sounded through the speaker.

_DING! DING! DING-D-DING-DING! D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DING! D-DING! DING! DING!_

A loud, undignified snort sounded from Yang’s nose. Who said Weiss didn’t have a sense of humor?

After about five minutes of watching Ruby get bounced around in Weiss’ ever changing pinball course, their leader froze in mid-air and fell to the ground; landing on one of the glyphs that launched her onto her bed. Bright red block letters zoomed onto the screen: GAME OVER.

Blake handed the scroll back to Weiss. Oh, yes, the heiress definitely had a sense of humor.

“Well, that explains how the school isn’t destroyed,” Yang said half surprised and half impressed. “It also explains how the bookcase got knocked over, but how did you guys find the secret compartment?”

“I actually found it while I was cleaning up all the books that had scattered across the floor,” Weiss explained. “I decided to pick up the books before tipping the bookcase back up. And when I was about to move it back into place, I noticed a notch cut into the floor. It turns out that there was a small door that leads to the compartment where the box was hidden.”

She glanced over at Blake and smirked teasingly. “By the way, _Secrets in Hiding: The Truths of Faunus Revealed_ , that’s quite the read. How long did it take for you to read that hefty thing?”

Blake’s eyes widened as a faint, pink blush colored her cheeks. She shot a glare at the heiress that would have turned Medusa to stone. “Weiss-”

“Since we’re all here, let’s crack this thing open!” Ruby exclaimed completely unaware of the situation forming between her teammates.

“Yeah!” Yang shouted excitedly.

A deep sigh of relief filtered past Blake’s lips. She sure dodged the bullet on that one. “Did you guys find a key with the box?”

Weiss and Ruby glanced at one another.

“Well…no…” Weiss admitted quietly. “I hadn’t even thought about looking for one.”

“Same here,” Ruby seconded. Her ears were burning red in embarrassment.

“No problem,” Yang said haughtily. She grabbed the lid with one hand and the bottom of the box with the other. “I’ll just rip the thing apart!”

Blake swiped the box from her partner’s hands before she completely demolished the container and any of its contents. “How about you let me give it a shot first? I have some…experience…with locks.”

Weiss raised an eyebrow. “You mean you have experience breaking into things.”

The bow on Blake’s head twitched nervously. “That…is another way to put it.” She pulled a bobby pin out of her bedside table drawer and focused on the severely rusted locking mechanism on the front of the box. “The White Fang did teach me a thing or two about stealth and sneaking.”

Yang’s eyes widened with wonder. “That is so cool! It’s like you’re a real life ninja or something!”

"She reads enough ninja books to know how to be one,” Weiss teased knowingly.

Blake felt her face grow hot and the insinuation lying in Weiss’ comment, but quickly dismissed it. She was on a mission. It had been a while since she had to crack a lock, and this one was so rusted that the inner workings were almost too stiff to move.

An audible _“click”_ sounded through the room and she held the box up single handedly.

Almost.

“Blake, you are awesome!” Yang squealed and roped the dark haired girl into a hug. “Let’s see what’s in this bad boy!”

The team moved to the floor and placed the box in the middle of the circle. Excitement was buzzing in the air as they all scooted in closer. Blake slowly lifted the lid, causing the hinges to creak all the while.

“What the?” Ruby stared confusingly into the contents of the box.

“More boxes?” Weiss furrowed her eyebrows.

Several black rectangles were lined up inside the keepsake box. Yang was the first to reach in and pull one out. It was taller than it was wide. Thinking back to her basic math skills, the measurements couldn’t have been more than 187mm wide, 103mm deep, and 25mm thick. In other words, it was the size of a novel meant for kids in late elementary school.

“I don’t think so, guys. Look.” She pointed to the front face of the strange, black block. There was a square sticker placed between two clear, plastic half circles that read “TRBL at Beacon Part 1”. The half circle on the left was filled with a roll of some kind of black ribbon while the one on the right was empty.

“A movie?” Blake asked in disbelief. “I know I didn’t grow up with this kind of stuff, but don’t movies come from the Snowberry Online store?”

“Yeah, but there are some movies you can buy on little cards that you can plug into your scroll,” Weiss informed. “What kind of device is this?”

Yang tilted her head as she scanned the front of the box. Something was written on a small strip of space near the top. “What the fuck’s a VHS?”

“A what?” Blake, Ruby, and Weiss asked in unison.

“It’s what it says right here!” Yang pointed the tiny white letters on the front. “VHS, what the hell is it?”

“Is that…like a team name?” Ruby asked awkwardly.

“Who’s ever heard of a team with only three members?” Weiss commented.

“Maybe one died,” Ruby suggested.

“That’s dark,” Blake stated.

“Says the girl who’s name literally means black,” Weiss countered.

“Ugh!” Yang scratched her scalp and fell onto her back. “Would someone just use their scroll to look it up? This is driving me nuts!”

“Well, maybe since you thought of it you should look it up,” Weiss huffed.

Yang sprang back up into a sitting position. “Fine! I will!” She opened the browsing screen on her scroll and started typing in the search engine.

Ruby pulled the second one out of the line and looked it over. “I bet it stands for Vortex Hunter Spur, and these things are actually some kind of high tech surveillance devices used for gathering information.”

“Ruby, that’s ridiculous,” Weiss shook her head in dismay.

“Well, I don’t see you coming up with anything better!” Ruby puffed out her cheeks in her signature pout.

“Fine, if you really want my input,” Weiss took the third VHS in the line and looked it over. “I think it stands for Vale Hunter’s Support. These are probably some sort of old training equipment used to break in the new students at Beacon.”

“….That makes more sense than what I came up with,” Ruby admitted in defeat.

“Come on, Ruby. What you came up with was cool too,” Blake said in an attempt to cheer up their leader.

“What do you think it means, Blake?” Weiss asked.

“Hm,” Blake took the fourth in line out of the box and examined it closely. She noticed that the top of the box had a hinge on each side and opened the small strip of plastic carefully. A strip of what looked like shiny black tape glinted in the industrial light above their heads. “I think it stands for Vinyl Hazard Sensor.”

“Well, unfortunately, you guys are all wrong,” Yang stated matter-of-factly; her face was illuminated in the blue glow from her scroll. “It says here that it stands for Video Home System. Apparently it was used a long time ago as one of the first mediums of video recording. That shiny, black tape is some sort of magnetic tape that holds video. If they had enough money to purchase one, people used recorders that they would put the VHS’s into and record home movies.”

“That sounds weird,” Ruby stated bluntly.

“Not really,” Blake thought out loud. “You see people taking videos and photos on their scrolls all the time. It’s basically the same thing. The media is just different.”

“How long ago were these things used?” Weiss asked curiously. “I’ve never heard of them before.”

“Hell if I know,” Yang chuckled. “The timeline for these things is pretty long. According to this site, though, VHS’s got beat out by something called a DVD.”

“I know what that is!” Blake announced excitedly.

Ruby, Weiss, and Yang all jumped at Blake’s sudden outburst and stared at her wide eyed with shock.

“Easy, Tiger, no need to shout,” Yang teased. “What’s a DVD then?”

“It’s a flat disk with a hole in the middle that used to have movies on them,” Blake informed. “The White Fang had some to store information on because they were so out of date they knew no one would be able to read them. My guess is that it’s the same thing as a VHS, just a lot less bulky and a lot more efficient.”

“Makes sense,” Weiss complimented. “Newer technology is usually so popular because it’s more efficient in one way or another.”

Yang put her scroll back in her pocket and only half listened as Blake and Weiss went off on a tangent about modern technology. Most of her attention was on the VHS in her lap. _“I wonder what’s on this thing?”_ she thought to herself. _“It’s strange, but I feel like there’s something important in these movies.”_

Something white caught her eye and she glanced back at the box. An old envelope was taped under the lid. It was unmarked and the paper had yellowed slightly with age, but it looked like it was still in-tact.

“Hey, guys, take a look at this.” She gently peeled the envelope off of the underside of the lid and held it up for everyone to see.

“What’s that?” Ruby asked curiously.

“It looks like a letter,” Yang replied as she opened the envelope.

“Thank you, Captain Obvious,” Weiss taunted. “So, you think it’s from the same people who made the VHS’s?”

Yang took the parchment out of the envelope and unfolded it. “Hmm, nope, apparently this was written by some other guy; goes by the name of “Shit Sherlock”, first name “No.”

Weiss glared at the blonde. “You’re mocking me, aren’t you?” It was more of a statement than an actual question, but Yang still had a response.

Amethyst eyes widened and a fake gasp filled the air. “Moi? Oh, no, no, no, no! I would never mock such a high standing lady as the heiress of the Schnee family.”

“Yup, she’s mocking you. The horrible French accent proves it,” Blake deadpanned.

“Oh, come on. That was funny and you know it.” Yang laughed at her own shenanigans.

“Just read the damn letter,” Weiss huffed.

“Why do I have to do it?” Yang whined. “I looked up what a VHS was.”

Blake ripped the parchment out of her partner’s hands and immediately began reading out loud for everyone to hear.

“Dear future students of Beacon Academy, life as you know it is about to change. For some of you, it already has. For others, you haven’t even tasted what true change is like.

“There will be times when you will feel small and insignificant, and times when you feel like you are on top of the world. You will run into impossible decisions that you will look back on and wish you had done differently. In some cases, maybe you’ll wish you had acted instead of sat back and let someone else take the reins.

“Our advice to you is to embrace those moments. Whether they are good or bad, happy or sad, cherish each and every memory. Take pride in what you do right, and learn from your mistakes. Do not be ashamed of who you are. Don’t think that just because you are a Faunus, a human, or whatever you may be, that you can’t live up to be something amazing.

“We all have monsters deep inside. Some just have better control of theirs than others. The years you spend here will bring out those inner demons more than anything else. Just know that your team is your family now, and that they will have your back through thick and thin, and help you if your monster becomes too much for you to handle.

“Hopefully you have taken our advice to heart. We left these behind so that future generations can see just what it was like in our time. Maybe then they can avoid making the same mistakes we made these past four years.

“Good luck, and welcome to Beacon. Signed: Team TRBL.” Blake scanned over the individually written out letters at the bottom. “This letter was dated nearly twenty-years ago.”

The four girls sat in silence for what felt like an hour; the contents of the letter slowly sinking in as they exchanged glances. In the end, it was Ruby who broke the silence first.

“Is anyone else scared of what might be on those tapes?”

Blake, Weiss, and Yang raised their hands.

“Okay, glad I’m not the only one,” Ruby sighed in relief.

“I wonder what they went through to write something like that,” Weiss said somberly. “I mean, sure, there are some things we’ve gone through as a team already that can be considered difficult. But those are nothing compared to what this team must have endured.”

“Well! There’s only one way to find out.” Yang leapt to her feet and punched her palm. “We go find something that will play these "VHS’s" and watch some home videos! There are only seven of them, and the information I found said that each tape only held about an hour and a half of content, so that’s maybe eleven hours’ worth of footage to go through! We can crank that out in a day if we binge watch!”

Following her sister’s example, Ruby jumped to her feet and struck a pose. “Let’s hatch a plan! All in favor of finding a way to watch these videos in order to see who this mysterious team TRBL was and what they went through say Aye!”

Blake stood up confidently. “Aye.”

Weiss shook her head. “We’re all getting way to into this.” She stood up and propped her hand on her hip. “But I guess I’m jumping on the bandwagon, aye.”

“Oh, my gosh! That actually worked this time! YAY!” Ruby squealed.

Just then the dinner bell sounded through the dorms.

“But first, I make a motion that we go get dinner!” Ruby announced.

“Aye!” Blake, Yang, and Weiss seconded enthusiastically.


	4. We All Make Sacrifices

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Learn from History

“You have got to be kidding me,” Yang grumbled as she and Blake made their way to Professor Port’s office. “I can’t believe I’m doing this. There’s no way whatever is on those damn tapes is worth doing this!."

“Come on, Yang,” Blake soothed. “It’s not going to be that bad.”

“You’re right. It’s going to be _worse!_ ” Yang whined. “Why do I have to be the one who has to flirt with Professor Port? The man’s old and gross!”

“That’s exactly why you have to do it,” Blake explained coolly. “He’s old, so he’s bound to know what it is we’re talking about. Plus, he’s already shown some pretty obvious interest in you. In the chance that he does have a VHS player, all you have to do is flirt a little and get him to let us borrow it.”

“…..That still doesn’t explain why it has to be me,” Yang pouted childishly.

Blake rolled her eyes. “Because I’m going to stop by Doctor Oobleck’s office to see if he knows where we can find one, and Ruby and Weiss are going the Multimedia Hub in the library to see if they have one we could rent.” A faint blush colored the Faunus girl’s ears. “Plus…I can’t flirt worth a damn.”

“Oh, come on, Blake,” Yang scoffed incredulously. “A sexy little thing like you, I’m sure you can have anyone you want wrapped around your finger like,” she snapped her fingers and cast her partner a wink, “that.”

“I’m sure the phrase ‘I’ll seduce you with my awkwardness’ is the best way to describe my flirting style,” Blake admitted embarrassingly. “…Do you really think I’m sexy?”

Yang’s spine stiffened as she realized what she said. “W-Well, sexy is a bit derogatory. Not saying that you’re not super-hot or anything, I just think that you’re classier than that. If anything, I’d say that you were beautiful or gorgeous.”

A small giggle escaped Blake’s lips. “I hope this isn’t you trying to flirt. If it is, we are in huge trouble.”

“Coming from the girl who says she can’t flirt worth a damn,” Yang teased.

“I don’t know. Have you noticed me flirting with you?” Blake rounded.

Yang’s eyes widened. “Wait. What?”

Another giggle sounded from Blake’s lips as she continued walking.

“Wait a minute! You’re teasing me, aren’t you?” Yang accused.

“Oh, hardcore,” Blake finally laughed.

Amethyst eyes glinted mischievously. “You better start running, Belladonna,” Yang warned as she cracked her knuckles. “I’d hate to see that pretty black hair of yours rubbed off from my famous Super-Ultra Noogie Deluxe.”

Blake stared at her partner warily. “You wouldn’t dare.”

“Wouldn’t I?” Yang goaded.

The two Huntresses locked eyes in a staring showdown. Cool, collected amber bored into glinting Amethyst. Black and yellow collided. It was a battle of silent wit, tenacity, resolve, and perseverance.

“Fuck!” Blake cursed and sprinted down the hall.

“Game on, Blake!” Yang yipped excitedly and tore after her partner.

* * *

 

“Of all the places I thought I’d lose that dunce, I never once thought it would be in a library.”

Weiss gazed down aisle after aisle of bookshelves in an attempt to find Ruby so they could complete their self-assigned mission. Honestly, she expected something like this from Blake. She actually expected the Faunus girl to have a secret hiding place atop one of the taller bookcases where she could read without being bothered. But how in the world had she lost the one girl who barely ever even opened a textbook?

“Hi, Weiss!” a child-like voice exclaimed.

The heiress nearly jumped out of her socks. “What the?” She whirled around and saw Ruby smiling idiotically behind her. “Where on earth did you go? I’ve been looking for you everywhere!”

“Shhhh!” The librarian, a deer faunus, hushed the two students.

Ruby and Weiss flinched at being scolded.

“Sorry, Weiss,” Ruby whispered sincerely. “I got distracted.”

“Distracted?” Weiss scolded quietly. “How could you get distracted?”

The younger girl held up a brightly colored manga and squealed silently. “They have the latest issue of _Lady Lynx and Her Wilderness Protectors_! There’s a whole section just for graphic novels and manga! I have to start coming here more often!”

Weiss’ eyes nearly tripled in size. Lady Lynx was one of her favorite magical girls in the entire world of manga…not that she would ever admit it out loud. It followed the life of a self-sufficient woman, working hard to make her way up in a man’s world, but being a magical girl concept the story gave her the power to turn into a Grimm at will. It was a dangerous power that she used protect the small wilderness village she lived in.

In the last issue, Lady Lynx had been trapped in the dark catacombs of an old church located deep within the forbidden forest. Her band of protectors, consisting of the few friends she had made over the years, had dispersed due to a sharp tongued stranger who turned them all against each other. The cliffhanger at the end had nearly caused the heiress to rip her Lady Lynx plushy in half. The fact that they had the latest release here in the library was, without a doubt, the most important find of the century.

Weiss gripped her partner’s shoulders firmly. “Ruby, I have an important question for you. It could be the difference between life and death.”

Ruby’s eyes sparkled with wonder before solidifying into a steely resolve that sent a shiver down Weiss’ spine. “What is it, Weiss? You know you can count on me.”

“I’m serious, Ruby. You can’t mention this to anyone. My reputation and status as Schnee heiress is on the line if anyone, especially my father, finds out.”

This only further solidified Ruby’s resolve. Whatever it was that Weiss was going to ask her must have been important. “You have my word.”

“Ruby,” ice blue eyes locked with steely silver, “Beast Brigade or Star-Crossed Lover Squad?”

The tension in the air was so thick it could be cut with a knife. Everyone who knew the Lady Lynx series knew about the two pairing ships: Beast Brigade and the Star-Crossed Lover Squad. They were the two most likely pairings to become canon. It was a known fact that the author was planning on making one the official end game.

Those who marched under the Star-Crossed Lover Squad’s regime promoted the pairing of Lady Lynx with Corvin Marquis, the dashing, human son of the town’s military commander. The commander hated Lady Lynx and all those like her, but his son proclaimed to love her with all his heart. It was because of that Romeo and Juliet concept that got the ship its name.

Unfortunately, Corvin Marquis was a well-known womanizer. Most of his proclamations of love were made for the sole purpose of bedding whatever beautiful woman he wanted. No one knew what would happen if he did happen to get Lady Lynx to bed with him.

Then there were the ones who sailed under the flag of the Beast Brigade. This ship ran on the soul belief that Lady Lynx would finally realize her true feelings and become the mate of….Sirena Wolfsbane, a fellow Grimm shifter who’s perseverance and pure heart wooed men and women alike. At the start of the manga, Sirena was introduced as Lady Lynx’s closest, most beloved friend, from an even smaller village to the far north. This often made their visits fairly short and long in between. In recent chapters, Sirena’s love became more and more evident to the readers; however, she never acts on them due to the fact that she believes Lady Lynx is in love with Corvin Marquis.

Now the question hung in the air. The answer could make or break this partnership. It was obvious which ship Weiss sailed for, but which crew did Ruby swear her allegiance?

Weiss swallowed hard against the lump in her throat as she waited with bated breath.

Ruby’s whole demeanor slackened. The brunette’s head fell forward and her shoulders started to quiver as she reached for something in her uniform jacket pocket. “Weiss….the Star-Crossed Lover Squad…”

The blood in Weiss’ veins turned to ice.

“Can send their ships to dark depths of the ocean,” Ruby finished, brandishing a Beast Brigade pin proudly.

Tears formed in the corners of Weiss’ eyes. She reached into the pocket of her own jacket and pulled out her Beast Brigade pin. This partnership could still work.

The White Rose duo tapped their pins together. “Beast Brigade for life!”

“SHHHHHHH!” the librarian hushed strictly.

Ruby and Weiss flinched, but their fear was short lived. They had a mission to accomplish. With their arms linked and their Beast Brigade buttons pinned to their breasts, they made their way to the Multimedia Hub.

“Excuse me,” Ruby called in order to get the student worker’s attention.

“Just one moment,” the boy replied from a kneeling position behind the counter. He had short, brown hair, thick rimmed glasses, and teeth that would put a beaver to shame. Actually, he may have been a beaver Faunus.

The boy stood up and smiled warmly. “There, sorry about that, what can I do for you ladies?”

“Yes, we were just wondering if you happened to have-” Weiss stopped in mid-sentence. Her eyes immediately fell to the breast of the boy’s jacket. The Star-Crossed Lover Squad button gleamed in the light like a dark omen.

The three students noticed the differing opinions plastered to each other’s breasts and a heavy silence hung in the air.

“Haven,” Ruby whispered, her eyes never leaving the boy’s pin, “we have a problem.”

* * *

 

Blake rubbed the top of her head gently. The spot between her ears was still tender from when Yang had given her a Super-Ultra Noogie Deluxe. How someone that big and that muscular could be so quick was beyond her.

The young Faunus stopped outside of an office door and read the plaque: DR. BARTHOLAMEW OOBLECK. This was it. She gently tapped her knuckles against the wood.

“Come in!” Dr. Oobleck’s high-strung voice called.

Blake opened the door and grimaced. The office looked like a clutter bomb just went off. Papers and books were scattered all over the place, portable chalkboards were filled with history notes on one half and only the heroes of Remnant knew what else, and coffee filters littered virtually every surface. “Doctor Oobleck?”

“Ah, Miss Belladonna, please come in!” Dr. Oobleck’s voice buzzed through the air.

A small breeze swept through Blake’s hair as she stepped into the room. So Oobleck was in his room, he was just on another coffee high. Perfect….

“What can I do for you, Blake?” A flash of green asked.

“Um…I was wondering if you happened to know anything about VHS’s.” Blake tried to focus on anything but the speeding smudge of green zooming around the room. As it turned out, watching a green blob sprint around the room was enough to make her nauseas.

“VHS’s, eh?” the green smear pitched. “It’s been quite some time since I’ve seen one of those. I believe the last time I saw one was when I tried to record the public arrest of a human and Faunus for being publicly affectionate back in my academy days.

“Did you know that Faunus and human relationships used to be illegal, Miss Belladonna?” Oobleck’s voice sped past. “Tragic, simply tragic; granted, that’s not a problem these days. Although it is still widely frowned upon, the unions between a human and Faunus is becoming more and more common. What with that old law being abolished and all; I wouldn’t be surprised if-”

Blake quietly closed the door and slid to the ground. She could feel her stomach turning summersaults as the world slowly spun left before jolting and spinning right. Maybe going to talk to Oobleck during his free hour had been a bad idea.

The bittersweet taste of vomit prickled the back of Blake’s tongue and she quickly scrambled over to the closest garbage can where she expelled the contents of her stomach. Oh, yes. Seeing Oobleck during his free hour when he had the chance to refill his caffeine gauge had been a very bad idea.

* * *

 

Most people would think it was strange to see a girl bouncing outside of a professor’s office and slapping herself. Most people would probably whisper false rumors about said girl. But Yang didn’t care about what most people said; she needed to psych herself up as much as possible for what she was about to do.

Dust above! She still could not believe she was doing this! Blake was definitely getting a round two after this!

Yang gave herself one more slap and took a deep breath. “Alright, Xiao Long, you can do this. It’s just flirting. You do it on the norm every day; often without realizing it too. This is nothing.”

Steeling herself for the oncoming torment that was Professor Port, Yang rapped her knuckles against the door.

“Come in! Come in!” Port’s deep voice sounded from inside.

Dammit! She had been hoping he wouldn’t be in!

Yang slowly opened the door to Port’s office and stepped inside. The scent of old man and peppermint immediately bombarded her nose. Taxidermy replicas of smaller creatures of Grimm hung from the walls. There was a golden bust of Professor Port’s head sitting on the corner of his desk, and a smaller, full statue of what could be assumed was his younger self stood in the corner. God, this man was so full of himself.

“Ah, Miss Xiao Long,” Professor Port greeted from his desk, the silver hair of his mustache and rather large belly billowed with every word he spoke. “What a pleasant surprise! What can I do for you?”

A shiver slithered up and down Yang’s spine as she took another step further into the tall-tale infested room. She had to calm down. There was no way this would work if she couldn’t at least pretend to be interested.

She took a deep breath and smiled as sweetly as she could. “Hello, Professor, I actually had a quick question to ask you. Of course, if you’re too busy I can always come back later.”

Yang could literally feel what little dignity she had left flutter out the window. God, the amount of heartbroken pity she had put into that last sentence was nearly enough to make her physically sick. Blake was **_definitely_** getting a second noogie after this!

“Don’t be silly,” Port dismissed pompously. “A gentleman always has time to help a lady when she needs it. What is your question?”

Yang tried to make her expression as excited as possible and bounced slightly on the balls of her feet; causing her more than ample breasts to sway uncomfortably. “Great! Well, you see, Professor, my friends and I found-”

“This wouldn’t happen to have anything to do with the golden Grimm summer study, would it?” Professor Port interrupted.

“The…what?”

“My dear girl, didn’t you pay attention in class the other day?” Port asked with little interest. “I mentioned during our last class that I was going to be holding an independent study for any students interested in locating a rare Grimm this summer. You see. I’ve been searching for this Grimm for quite some time, and each time I find it the beast somehow manages to slip away.”

_"Oh, fuck me!”_ Yang kicked herself mentally. _“Now I have to listen to him go through one of his spiels before I can even ask my question! Way to go, Yang!”_

“Is that so?” Yang asked; putting as much interest into her words as possible.

“Yes, indeed,” Port confirmed. “I first came across the beast about twenty-three years ago…or was it twenty-four? Anyway, I had decided to go on a hunt the summer after my first year of teaching here-”

Yang bit her tongue in an attempt to keep herself awake as Professor Port started, what appeared to be, a very long-winded story.

* * *

 

After dinner, all four members of team RWBY trudged their way back to their dorm room in complete silence. Once inside, groans of defeat filled the air as Blake and Weiss collapsed onto their beds and Yang and Ruby hunkered down onto the rug. They hadn’t talked much during supper, but they didn’t have to. The silence was answer enough.

They had failed in their mission to obtain a VHS player.

Yang rolled onto her stomach and gazed up at Blake’s bed. “How’d things go with Oobleck?”

“I’d rather not think about it,” the Faunus girl groaned. A slight burp escaped her mouth as the memory of Oobleck speeding around his office caused her stomach to flip again. “How did things go with you and Port?”

A dull moan escaped Yang’s lips. “I got roped into listening to him gush about a fake, golden Grimm he supposedly “ran into” a couple times in his life and how he’s putting together an independent study program this summer to find the thing. I swear. That man must smoke some pretty potent herbs to come up with some of his stories.”

“That’s for sure,” Blake chuckled. She glanced between Weiss and Ruby. “How did you guys do?”

Ruby pulled her hood over her head in shame.

“We are officially banned from the Multimedia Hub,” Weiss stated indifferently as she rubbed the bridge of her nose.

“Damn Star-Crossed Lover Squad grunt,” Ruby growled from the confines of her hood.

Blake’s ears twitched curiously. “Do I even want to know?”

“Nope,” Yang responded bluntly.

“Good enough for me,” Blake sighed.

Silence fell over the team in dismay. They were no closer to finding a VHS player than when they had started. What were they supposed to do now?


	5. The Pain of Dreaming

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yang's dreams get a bit more real.

She was running. Each breath she took caused her lungs to scream out in agony. The darkness surrounding her was never ending, and the monsters chasing after her were bound to catch her sooner or later…

A loud, blood thirsty howl echoed through the abyss.

…And by the sounds of it, it was going to be sooner rather than later.

Yang frantically searched the darkness. Something was different. Normally she would have heard the first shrill shriek by now, but the only thing she heard were the Grimm chasing after her.

Something hot ghosted across the back of her neck and she screamed. It was right behind her. The Grimm was right behind her.

The shadows suddenly gave out under her feet and she fell. She yelped in surprise. Was that it? Was this hellish dream finally over?

A sharp pain exploded in her ankles as she collided with the hard, black ground.

Apparently not.

Yang struggled to get up, but the pain in her legs was too excruciating to even think of moving. She felt something wet seeping through her clothes and realized that she was lying in a puddle of black water. It blended so well with the rest of the darkness that she hadn’t even noticed it.

She could hear the ominous growls above her start closing in. The Grimm were making their way down to her. She had to move.

Despite the searing pain in her ankles, Yang threw herself forward and ran as fast as she could. Silent tears were flowing freely down her face as she sprinted for her life. It was silly; she knew that. This was a dream, she couldn’t actually die here, but the overwhelming fear was still there.

“We’re not going to make it!” the familiar voice of an unknown woman yelled.

“Yes, we are!” Yang yelled desperately. She knew how this was going to end. Her future self was going to pull some self-less act of sacrifice and this nightmare would end.

A flash of gold, a splash of crimson, and the world would turn black. She would wake up in her bed: safe and sound. Blake would ask her if she was alright, and she would laugh and say she was fine. Ruby would be hurriedly getting ready to go get breakfast, and Weiss would be reprimanding her for putting her shirt on backwards like an idiot.

Only something was different this time. This time she could actually hear the heavy pounding of footprints beating against the stone she knew she had to be running on. She squinted into the darkness and noticed something else.

Instead of running by herself like she had originally thought, she was running alongside two women. One she recognized as the older version of herself, but the other was new. It was difficult to pick out any specific characteristics, but there were two things in particular that stood out: long, black hair…and crimson.

“We’re not,” older Yang whispered. She quickly grabbed the scruff of the other woman’s shirt collar with one hand while the other grasped her belt firmly. “But you are!”

The unknown woman was launched like a missile towards the only exit in the cavern they were in. A loud, high-pitched shriek echoed in her wake. Shortly after, a loud rumble shook the shadows beneath Yang’s feet and large black blobs obscured the opening the woman had disappeared through.

The two Yangs trotted up to the wall, panting heavily.

“NO!” The woman shrieked. “We need to get her out of there!” The sound of nails scraping on rocks shrieked on the opposite side of the wall.

“Don’t!” Older Yang shouted back angrily. “This is the only exit they have! If you open it up to get me out, they’ll destroy everything! You guys need to get out of here!”

“I’m not leaving you behind!” the woman objected stubbornly. A small hole broke through the wall. “I’ll kill _myself_ before I let that happen!”

“You have to!” Older Yang persisted. She slammed her fist against the stone barricade and gritted her teeth. “There’s no other way! Get the others, get out of here, and tell them to blow this damn mountain sky high!”

“NO!” The other woman screamed. “I can’t just sentence you to death like that! I can’t!” Tears started streaming down her face as sobs escaped her throat.

Yang watched as her older self relaxed and pressed her forehead against the small opening. “There are worse ways to die….. I could die of boredom in Port’s class,” she laughed half-heartedly at the last part.

“What about your _lover_?” the other woman demanded. “What about _Blake_? You promised-”

Yang’s eyes widened as an intense heat flooded across her face. Lover? Blake? What?

She dragged her fingers through her hair as the words sunk in. It wasn’t like she thought Blake wasn’t attractive or anything. In fact, it was quite the opposite. She thought that the Faunus girl was rather beautiful…and smart…and talented…and strong…

Okay, so she had a bit of a crush on her partner, but to have her as a lover? She had never thought that it could actually be a thing! That was only something she had ever dreamed of!

“Well, I am in a dream right now,” Yang attempted at humor but found her own joke to be in poor taste. “Dammit, I’m losing my edge.”

“I KNOW WHAT I PROMISED!” Older Yang roared, snapping the younger blonde out of her reverie. She slammed her fist against the wall; knocking a few smaller bits of rubble loose. “But…I can’t keep that promise…if they’re all dead… The way I see it, this is the only way I can keep it….”

Silence hung heavily between the two Huntresses.

“What about your little girl?” the other woman asked. Tears coated her voice as she spoke. “What about…” Silent sobs caused the sentence to be cut short.

Blood dripped from Older Yang’s clenched fists. “Well….it looks like you just got promoted from auntie to mommy…. She’s your little girl now…” A small sob hiccuped in the blonde’s throat.

Yang felt tears prickling at her eyes as a hot lump rose in her throat. “ _Ruby?....”_

“D-Do me a favor?” Older Yang choked.

“Anything,” the woman on the other side of the wall hiccuped.

“Don’t tell anyone I cried at the end…It makes me seem less cool.”

A small chuckle sounded from the wall. “Only if you don’t tell anyone I’m bawling my eyes out right now.”

“Deal,” Older Yang chuckled. “Now get out of here. Get to the airship and radio those assholes to blow this rock sky high.”

“You got it.”

The sound of footsteps slowly faded away; leaving the two blondes alone. “Fuck…” the older of the two cursed quietly. “Fuck. Fuck! FUCK!”

Yang watched as her future self turned around and leaned against the stone wall. Tears were streaming down her face in rivers. She quickly wiped them away with the back of her gloved hand and peered into the darkness with dark, tired eyes.

The monstrous growls and howls of the oncoming Grimm were practically at their door. Their hot, rancid breath reeked of death and rotted flesh. It took everything Yang had to keep from vomiting.

The older blonde took a shaky breath and leaned down to her boots. “This is going to hurt like a bitch,” she stated calmly. She unclipped the leather straps on the outsides of her ankles and pulled two, silver blank knife blades from their holsters.

“Good thing I started carrying these around back at Beacon. They’ve sure saved my ass on a few occasions.” She stared at her reflection in the razor sharp blade and smiled humorously. “Not sure what good they’re going to do now, though. Oh, well,” she clipped the blank handles into the palms of her gloves, “might as well have some fun.”

Yang felt the darkness beneath her feet shake violently as a monstrous Grimm manifested in front of the older blonde. Dark purple, almost black, eyes locked with burning red confidently as the beast roared. A haughty smirk pulled at the corner of her mouth.

“Aw, aren’t you cute? You think you’re scary.”

The shadowy Grimm lunged forward. With a wave of her arm and a flick of the wrist, Older Yang snapped the monster’s neck with her bare hands. No sooner had the first Grimm dropped to the ground that another took its place…and another…and another.

Soon everything was a blur. Dark smudges smeared Yang’s vision like a kindergartener’s finger-painting. Eventually, the colorful paints were found, and the portrait was adorned with a flash of gold, a splash of crimson, and the rest turned black.

Yang closed her tear filled eyes and felt the air whip around her as she fell. _“You are my sunshine, my only sunshine.”_ The familiar, warm voice began. _“You make me happy when skies are gray. You’ll never know, dear, how much I love you. So please don’t take my sunshine away.”_

 

A loud _THUD_ pierced the early morning air as Yang collided with the hardwood floor; pain immediately exploding through her neck. “Son-of-a-Borbatusk!”  She slowly pushed herself into a sitting position and rubbed the back of her neck. “Well…that’s one way to wake up in the morning. It’s not my cup of Folgers, but it does the trick.”

“I’ll say! You woke up the whole dorm!” A shrill voice reprimanded.

“Huh?” Yang whirled around and winced at the excruciating pain in her neck. “Dammit!”

Weiss, Ruby, and Blake crowded around their teammate.

“Yang, are you alright?” Ruby asked worriedly.

“Yeah, just a crick in the neck,” Yang replied painfully. She grasped her jaw and the top of her head firmly and jerked to the side. A loud _CRACK_ echoed through the room.

_CRACK!_

_CRACk!_

_CRAck!_

_CRack!_

_Crrrrrrraaaaaaaacccccccckkkkk!_

Ruby shuttered and hugged herself tight. “Can someone please explain why that last one sounded like it was in slow motion?”

“Focus,” Weiss stated firmly and folded her arms; trying desperately to ignore the chill crawling along her spine. “Alright, Yang, this is getting out of hand. These nightmares of yours are becoming a problem.”

“How did you know I was having nightmares?” Yang exclaimed. She turned towards Blake; the most pitiful of distressed puppy expressions was plastered on her face. “You didn’t tell them, did you?”

A faint blush colored the Faunus’ cheeks. “Of course I didn’t,” she denied shakily. “You were literally screaming in your sleep, Yang. _Everyone_ heard you.”

All the color drained from Yang’s face. “Everyone?”

“ _Everyone_ ,” Blake, Ruby, and Weiss emphasized.

Yang flinched at the venomous undertone in her teammate’s voices. “Oops…my bad…”

Blake sighed heavily and knelt down next to her partner. “Yang, we need to do something about this. I know we’ve talked about it already, but maybe you should tell Weiss and Ruby what’s going on too.”

“Um, why?” Yang asked nervously.

“Because Weiss looks like she’s not against killing you if you wake her up again,” Blake explained, counting off on her fingers. “Ruby looks like she’s about to burst into tears, team JNPR is concerned for your well-being, they’re also becoming less and less concerned for your well-being because you keep waking them up with your screams, and I’m worried about you.”

Yang glanced down at the hand on her shoulder, and blushed as the memories from her dream flooded her mind:

_“What about your **lover**? What about **Blake**?”_

What about Blake?

She looked up at her partner and felt a guilt induced wave of nausea plow through her stomach. The Faunus member of the team looked as horrible as Yang felt. Dark circles were beginning to form around dull, amber eyes. Even her usually perky cat ears were limp on top of her head.

Yang quickly glanced at her sister and Weiss. They weren’t fairing much better. Ruby looked like she was about ready to fall asleep where she stood. Her eyes, red and puffy from crying, had the same dark circles as Blake’s

Even Weiss was showing signs of strain. Her normally pale skin was now bleached an unhealthy color, and her pristine, white hair had lost its luster. The circles around her eyes announced that she had also joined the Raccoon Club.

“Did you guys get any sleep at all last night?” Yang asked. Her voice was more of a plea.

“Not with you moaning and groaning like an Ursa with a gut ache,” Weiss huffed. A yawn escaped her mouth. “Don’t get me started about the hour long scream fest you decided to partake in.”

“Weiss, that’s enough,” Blake scolded. “It’s not her fault. These dreams are….difficult.”

“Oh, and how would you know?” the heiress demanded. “Has your little obsession led to you creating a machine that allows you to share the same dreams as Yang?”

“That’s not it at all!” Blake hissed threateningly. “Like I said before, Yang and I have talked about this.”

“Guys, can we just chill out for a minute?” Ruby intervened. “None of us have gotten much sleep tonight, so we’re a little cranky. But I want to hear what Yang has to say! It’s not fair that only Blake knows, and we shouldn’t make any judgements until we hear her side of the story!”

Weiss and Blake glanced at each other briefly before huffing in agreement.

Nodding confidently at her teammate’s reactions, Ruby turned to her sister. “Alright, Yang, spill it. I think I’ve bought you enough time to tell us what these dreams of yours are about and why they’re freaking you out so much.”

Yang sighed heavily. “Better sit down, sis. This is a long story.”

* * *

 

Ruby and Weiss stared at Yang incredulously. The sun was just starting to peek over the tops of the buildings in the distance, illuminating the room with brilliant shades of gold, pinks, and purples, and the sweet singing of morning songbirds filled the air outside. There was maybe two hours before the first bell rang.

Yang fidgeted slightly in her seat. It had taken her an hour to explain everything. Granted, she hadn’t mentioned everything. She had left the part about Blake becoming her future lover and how Ruby became the adoptive mother of her child out on purpose. Everything else, though, was fair game: the dark haired woman with the Grimm mask, the nightmares and how they’ve been getting clearer with each passing night, everything.

“Let me get this straight,” Weiss clarified. “These dreams just happened to start a little over a week ago?”

"Yup!” Yang confirmed.

“After we had our little mix up on the train?”

“Mmm-hmm.”

"And you think the Grimm woman has some sort of significance?”

“That I’m not quite sure about,” Yang admitted sheepishly. “All I know is that she saved me on the train when that Neapolitan ice cream looking bitch was about to turn me into a shish-kabob.”

Blake tensed at the thought of someone running a skewer through Yang’s chest.

“But you’re sure that the blonde woman you keep seeing is you in the future?” Weiss more stated than asked.

“I can’t think of anything else it could be,” Yang explained.

“……Alright,” Weiss dismissed and began collecting the toiletries needed for her morning shower.

“Look, Weiss, I know this sounds crazy-…Wait…What?”

“I said ‘alright’,” Weiss repeated as she made her way to the bathroom. “Look, Yang. As crazy as this does sound, I have done things this year that I never would have thought possible. I mean. Come on. I’m the heiress of the Schnee Corporation, and yet one of my closest friends is an ex-White Fang member.

“This may be a bit different than a Schnee befriending a Faunus, but in my mind the level of crazy is about the same. We’re all teammates. We need to be able to trust one another. If we don’t, who knows? We may, or may not, live to regret it later on.”

With that, Weiss entered the bathroom; leaving the remaining members of team RWBY to stare wide eyed in disbelief at the door.

“…..What just happened?” Ruby asked in confusion.

“I think Weiss is taking that letter team TRBL left behind to heart,” Blake guessed.

“Either that, or she ate a special brownie for breakfast,” Yang suggested.

The girls’ stomachs growled ferociously at the mention of food. Unfortunately, the cafeteria didn’t open for another forty-five minutes. Oh, the humanity of waking up early and having to be conscious for the initial hunger pains.


End file.
